"She has conquered like a queen, she will forgive like
a mother," thought he.

Meanwhile the roar of cannon was changed to prolonged
thunder. Horses' hoofs clattered again over the empty
streets. A Cossack, bareheaded and in his shirt-sleeves,
dashed into the square on a barebacked horse, with the
speed of a thunderbolt; his face, cut open with a sword,
was streaming with blood. He reined in the horse, stretched
forth his hands, and when he had taken breath, with open
mouth began to cry,--

"Hmelnitski is beating the Poles! The serene great
mighty lords, the hetmans and colonels, are conquered,--
the knights and the cavalry!"

When he had said this, he reeled and fell to the ground.
The men of Mirgorod sprang to assist him.

Flame and pallor passed over the face of Skshetuski.

"What does he say?" asked he feverishly of Zakhar.
"What has happened? It cannot be. By the living God,
it cannot be!"

Silence! Only the hissing of flames on the opposite side
of the square, shaking out clusters of sparks, and from
time to time a burnt house falls with a crash.

Now more couriers rush in. "Beaten are the Poles,-
beaten!"

After them follow a detachment of Tartars. They march
slowly, for they surround men on foot, evidently prisoners.
Skshetuski believes not his own eyes. He recognizes
perfectly on the prisoners the uniform of the hetmans'
hussars; then he drops his hands, and with a wild, strange
voice repeats persistently, "It cannot be! it cannot be!"
The roar of cannon was still to be heard. The battle was
not finished, but through all the unburnt streets Zaporo-
jians and Tartars were crowding in, their faces black, their
breasts heaving, but they were coming as if intoxicated,
singing songs. Thus return soldiers from victory.

The lieutenant grew pale as a corpse. "It cannot be!"
repeated he in a hoarser voice,--"it cannot be! The Com-
monwealth--"

A new object arrested his attention. Krechovski's Cos-
sacks enter the town, bringing bundles of flags. They
come to the centre of the square, and throw them down.
Polish flags!

The roar of the artillery weakens, and in the distance is
heard the rumble of approaching wagons. One of them is